GOP legislative leaders have made clear they will pass such a law if they gain a majority and the governor is expected to sign it.

“Kentucky is a lot like West Virginia,” said Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council director Bill Finn, a journeyman wireman and former Local 369 business manager. “We’re just in a terrible political climate and it’s trending more Republican every year.”

The election last November of Republican Gov. Matt Bevin led to a renewed effort to pass a right to work law in Kentucky. By Gage Skidmore under a Flicker/Creative Commons agreement.

That’s why the IBEW and other unions are fighting back in advance of the March 8 election. Right-to-work laws allow employees to opt out of paying membership dues, even when they receive the benefits of a union contract. Most right-to-work states rank near the bottom in terms of wages and benefits for workers.

Two of the seats came open when legislators holding them were elected to statewide office. Both were Republicans. The others came open when Bevin appointed those legislators to state government positions. Both were Democrats.

The openings are in the 8th District in the southwestern part of the state near Fort Campbell; the 54th District in central Kentucky; the 62nd District, just north of Lexington; and the 98th District in Greenup County in the northeastern corner of the state.

In the special election, Local 369 has endorsed the four Democrats running for the openings. Letters have been sent to IBEW members around the state urging them to get out to vote. Holthouser and Fourth District International Representative Don Vidourek are speaking to members of other unions in the four House districts to remind them of the election’s importance.

The Kentucky state basketball tournament began last week and members of Portsmouth, Ohio Local 575 – which has jurisdiction in northeast Kentucky – handed out leaflets to fans at games in an area that includes House District 98 in Greenup County.

Right-to-work opponents need a good ground game. Arch-conservative outside groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, are expected to spend more than $1 million on the race. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky’s senior senator, also is making a push to flip the House.

“The Republicans definitely have the wind at their backs and we’re just hanging on by a thread,” Finn said.

Right-to-work opponents got a morale boost earlier this month when a federal judge struck down a right-to-work law in Hardin County, writing that only the states – and not individual counties --- can pass statutes to exempt themselves from the National Labor Relations Act.

But the upcoming election and the fact the Republicans control most of state government left little time to celebrate. Kentucky voters saw earlier this year why the March 8 vote matters so much.

“When you lose the prevailing wage, the contracts will bring in these low-wage workers from out of state,” Holthouser said. “These guys will work for next-to-nothing. The money will go out of state along with the tax revenue.”

Finn said he’s urging contractors from around the state to speak out. Much of the work they have counted on will go to out-of-state competitors if right-to-work passes and prevailing wage laws are scrapped, he said.

Prevailing wage laws require contractors doing business with the government to pay their workers at pre-determined levels. They were put in place to assure local tax dollars used on local projects stay in the community and go back to working people in the area. Without them, states are more likely to hire out-of-state companies with workers from outside the area.

“This is really going to affect their business,” Finn said. “[The contractors] are becoming more concerned. We’re trying to get them to contact their legislators. A lot of them are Republicans and the business side needs to be heard. We’re counting on them.”

Former Local 369 President Scott Pulliam takes some hope from elections in 2014, when Republicans pushed hard to gain control of the House, but Democrats maintained an eight-seat edge. Two Democrats flipped to the GOP after Bevin’s election last November, but he said the election showed that right-to-work opponents still can win when facing unfavorable trends. McConnell was seeking re-election and was at the top of the Kentucky ballot that year.